Wow … it’s actually been just about a year since I started this site. While it was originally intended as a way to showcase (or some other word to that effect) my creative writing skills (and the products thereof), I’ve veered a bit off-course. This has been, admittedly, due to my personal “muse” deciding to take an extended holiday. I do hope it returns at some point, as I truly did enjoy crafting a story. However, at the moment, I find myself without any sort of story to craft.
I could just endlessly challenge myself, as it were, with writing prompts and such, but I much prefer even the core ideas to be my own. This, combined with the present lack of employment (a topic for another time, if ever), has led me to, of course, watching a lot of anime (one of my recent preferred methods of ingesting entertainment). Anime hasn’t supplanted my love of reading science-fiction and fantasy novels, mind you, but it is something I’m doing regardless.
In any event, this season once again seems to be packed – and with quite a few series I’m considering “watchable”. As a reminder, I have a subscription to Crunchyroll (not pumping them up, just stating it as it is). I also have sort of have one for Netflix (courtesy of my cell service plan), but I haven’t really checked stuff there out, so I’m limiting myself to what’s on Crunchyroll.
Also, for this season, rather than going through and including stuff I may have taken a look at and then dropped, I’m just going to include the shows I seem to enjoy watching (at least through the end of the first episode). [There’s only one show (Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence which hadn’t started as of when I started writing this, so I’m not able to comment on whether that is on my list or not. This took so long to write that I’ve now seen it and it’s on the list also – added late.]
The Returning / Continuing Shows
This part of the list is the Season 2 (or later) or “another cour”. A cour for an anime is a calendar season – as compared with an official “Season 2” announcement. So, typically, a cour is 12-13 episodes and a “second cour” means the show has been extended to be 24-26 episodes.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale S2 – Season 1 was about as sickeningly-sweet as the title implies. Enslaved fairies and “silver-sugar masters” (who make confections) is only the beginning of just how messed-up this series gets. Then we add in the outright bastards of some of the human male cast and the weird sort of seemingly fetishized budding romance between the female lead and her (of course) handsome enslaved fairy and … yep, it’s weird. Then again, I “suffered” through Season 1 and didn’t die from diabeetus, so I might as well go through Season 2.
The Devil is a Part-Timer!! S2 – While this is a continuing series, it’s also a “reverse-isekai” – where a host of characters from a different world / universe travels to ours and has to figure out how to live on Earth. In this case, it’s the top-of-the-top devils (like, the main character is, technically, “Satan”). And, of course, he’s been transported to Tokyo (surprise, surprise) and needs to figure out how to live and support himself and his two generals (one who becomes a “house-husband” while the other turns into a hacker hikikomori). Oh, and the Great Hero who has sworn to defeat him also got reverse-isekai’ed. And (also “of course”), there’s the cute high-school girl who works with him at his part-time job at a fast-food restaurant who’s fallen for him. It’s weird, it’s at times annoying, but generally amusing and I’ve watched all the previous stuff, so I might as well keep going.
Mushoku Tensei S2 – Season 1 of this was an absolute hit when it came out. There were quite a few “Ehhh?” sort of reviews and raised-eyebrows over it, but, honestly, when it comes to isekai’ed infants lewding and other sorts of extremely suggestive content, it’s important (as always) to remember the ultimate source material does come from Japan and it’s … less weird?… there.
[Ok, as I contemplate that statement, I realize that might make me seem weird, but, then again, using the same “Western lens” on anime is what gave rise to absolute butchering of long-ago series which were brought over and had the massive enemy armies and space fleets being composed entirely of “robots” so it was “acceptable” to show them being slaughtered by the heroes. See my earlier post, My History With Anime, for a bit more on my thoughts regarding this.]
Also, while, yeah, I’m an absolute sucker for emotional content, then end of the first episode of this season, with Rudeus rediscovering himself and being pulled / pulling himself out of his depressive funk definitely had me tearing up a bit.
Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari S2 – Season 2 is here and it’s pretty similar strangeness as the first one. Basic premise is that “treasured items” (treasured in the sense of being well-loved, etc.) develop an imbued spirit which may become downright nasty if and when it takes form (complete with some sort of spirit super-powers and the like). So, of course, there are the humans who are able to fight them and re-“seal” these spirits away. It’s not nearly as whack-a-doodle as that sounds, though, and is well done, with some light rom-com elements added in.
The Rom-Coms
My Tiny Sempai – Short-stack (and I do mean stacked) supervisor with her underling in a typical office environment. From the first episode, there were a lot of suggestive jokes although the second episode toned that down immensely, which is good. She’s not overly pushy, and so comes across as a bit more innocent and just generally “nice” as compared with some other similarly-styled characters. [Yes, Uzaki-chan, I am talking about you!] Episode 2 ventured into how the others around them have started pushing the two main leads into a possibly more romantic relationship. It’s light, it’s fun, it’s my typically-enjoyed genre, so – Yep!
The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses – First off, while the animation on this one seems to be primarily (or possibly completely) computer-generated, it is stunningly gorgeous! Having said that, the first five minutes or so of the first episode, with its bizarre low-angle and ridiculous panning-around shots were almost downright vertigo- or nausea-inducing. And then we meet Mie-san, the potential love interest. And … I fell in love (ok, not for real, but the character is beautiful; and she’s cute – I know, I know, it’s pretty much a standard). She is also so incredibly near-sighted as to need to hold a book mere inches from her face in order to be able to read it at all. Since I am almost identically afflicted, I obviously can sympathize. Forgetting her glasses one day, she needs to rely on Komura-kun (in the seat next to her) for assistance. He is, obviously, the one who has been smitten with her, in silence the entire time.
As of right now, this is already guaranteed to be my favorite rom-com this season and, depending on how the story is handled, may indeed become my favorite show. There’s one other (oddly enough, from the same studio) which is the other early challenger, but time will tell.
TenPuru – Ahhhh… what’s that I smell at this musky monastery-turned-nunnery? “Harem hijinks,” you say? Quite possibly. Let’s run through it, shall we? Young boy is abandoned by his semi-successful dad because the dad needs to go out and woo / romance / fuck all the women he hasn’t done so with yet. As a teen / college student, he forswears any romantic interest since that was clearly the ruination of his father … right up until the pretty girl chasing a runaway rice bale helps him and he falls in love. This utterly ruins everything in his life as his pent-up lust wants to … ahem … “burst free”. In an attempt to free himself from this, he finds a nearby male-only monastery so he can seclude him away from the lure of females. Unfortunately, it’s become a nunnery, with, of course, five beautiful females there, one of whom, also of course, is the girl of his dreams. He winds up injured and temporarily delusional and, in the process, ultimately gropes, molests and does other “unspeakable” (by normal societal standards) things to most if not all of them. In the course of apologizing afterwards, it comes across that his father owes an immense amount of money to the monastery-turned-nunnery and so he is “forced” to work like an indentured servant (read: “slave”) there. Yep – it’s a harem; and, yep – it’s surprisingly funny.
The Isekais
Am I Actually The Strongest? – main character gets isekai’ed into a world of magic as a baby, complete with enough magic power to roll the meter over several times (so it looks like he’s utterly powerless) and then gets abandoned to die. This is followed by him (still as a practically newborn, swaddled and in a small basket) absolutely curb-stomping the equivalent of an end-boss – who then transforms into a buxom female to “nurse” him (don’t ask) as she swears fealty. The baby is then found and adopted with his hot follower coming along to be his maid. Yeah, it’s generic and it’s cheesy, but it’s stupid fun, so unless it goes a lot harder into the “stupid” than the “fun”, I’m easy – I’m watching it.
Sweet Reincarnation – I almost want this one and Sugar Apple Fairy Tale to get together. In this one, the MC is a confectioner on earth who makes massive candy sculptures … right up until one with lots and lots and lots of pointy stuff falls on him and impales him, isekai’ing him off to a world of magic, where he is not only super-powerful, but also extremely knowledgeable, so he can use his earth-knowledge to improve things. In this case, the things he wants to improve are not only desserts and candy, but also his father’s fiefdom’s safety against raiders. About as stupid as it sounds and the fact that the main character’s name is, I shit thee not, “Pastry”, should tell you about all you need to know. Decently well-executed, though, so I’m watching it.
The Great Cleric – Salaryman dies both accidentally and tragically, is isekai’ed, and, for reasons, decides to train as a healer, applying his dedication and studious ways to learning the craft. Eh, I’m watching it.
My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 – There are two isekai shows this season which are aggressively competing for “brain-hurtingly stupidest underlying concept” and this is one of them.
First off, the entire (and I do mean entire) world is built around dungeon monster “drops” – the loot monsters leave after they’ve been defeated. The first character he encounters, for example, is dungeon “farming” (hunting monsters repeatedly to get a special drop or lots of something regular) for … wait for it … bean sprouts. Yep, you heard that right. Just ordinary bean sprouts. Apparently, the concept of regular “farming” (planting seeds or sprouts, nurturing and harvesting them) is unknown. As is, it seems, chopping down trees and everything else associated with what one might consider a “healthy” economy.
The main character is, as the title says, starting out at level 1 and, on top of that, has some of the worst possible RPG “stats” imaginable. Except, of course for that one super-special stat which makes everything work better. When he kills a monster, he gets superior drops. So, those bean sprouts? He’s getting a whole heaping pile of them instead of a measly few. He then goes to a new dungeon where all the monsters drop special stat-increasing items – but only if you have this super-special thingy. This may wind up being dropped depending on what the series does with this stupidity.
Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon – And for the other contender, we have this one. Main character gets isekai’ed by having a vending machine fall on him and kill him. He seems to have some odd emotional attachment to them and is reborn as a … oh, wait … it’s right there in the title!!! Yeah. His health is based on how many items he can sell, and he also spends points to change what items are available. I have no idea why I’m watching beyond the first episode, but, again, the mind-numbing stupidity may well prove to be too much for me.
Action-ish
Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout The Animation – It’s based on some sort of online game. And the studio making it has definitely made some … specific … decisions regarding the art style. So much so that the short version of the title already has a bit of a pun associated with it – at least for me. [You will probably hate yourself if you look up the character designs for the main character, but I’ll simply say the pun is to refer to it as “Atelier Thigh-za” and leave it at that.] Goofy and may yet be dropped.
AYAKA – A mix between action “stuff” in what seems to be a bit of a slice-of-life setting. Angsty abandoned orphan, now a teen, has limited his socialization because he’s got “powers” which run out of control. Goofy (and alcoholic) mentor finds him to bring him back “home”, where it turns out are basically for controlling (and pacifying) the spirits all around them. Commence training as he also tries to re-settle into the area where he was born and everyone knew / respected his super-powerful father. Since the episode 2 “threat” turned out to be a “monster” created by the mentor’s drunken (and forgotten-in-alc0holic-daze) antics, it’s a got a fun vibe to it, even while I absolutely want to bitch-slap the mentor guy and beg one of the more responsible members of that society to take over for him.
Rurouni Kenshi (2023) – I watched the original (animated) version of this and it’s an interesting look at the Meiji period of Japan. The main male character, Kenshin, is a reformed assassin / warrior who’s now kinda just trying to live his life. Much of the artwork and character designs remain extremely faithful. Massively enjoyed episode 1 and can’t wait for more!
Reign of the Seven Spellblades – It’s a Magic School™! With Magic School Hijinks galore! Yeah, bog-standard stuff. May be interesting, may not be. Decision still forthcoming.
Classroom for Heroes – Started off slow and weird, but definitely turned interesting midway through the first episode. The main character is the Great Hero™, wanting to find a “normal life” in, of course, a school for training heroes. However, he comes across as a bit of a goofy idiot because one of his goals is to make lots and lots of friends! It just so happens he’s also super-powerful (and OP like crazy). There is also some ahem definite fan-service which doesn’t hurt. The turning point, for me, was when it becomes quite clear he’s not a total idiot and has reasons for wanting to claim a more normal life.
Slice-of-Life
The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today – Or, alternately, “What If Your Adult-human-sized House Pet Is More Responsible Than You Are?” Saku is a hardworking salarywoman who barely takes care of herself. Her gigantic cat, which she rescued from the street when it was tiny, does this instead. He drags her out of bed, prepares all of her meals (including planning recipes and such from watching TV), cleans the house, etc. He even forces her to check her weight (although this is done by him weighing himself alone and while holding her, as she’s kicking and screaming). No one she works with has any idea she isn’t making those perfect little lunch-boxes for herself. Around home, of course, no one is batting an eye at a 6-foot tall cat walking around on its hind legs.
This show is both amusing and charming. And as you might have guessed, it is the other show competing hard to be my favorite for the season. Every scene in just the first episode had me smiling, especially Saku trying, desperately, to hide how she wasn’t the one who makes her lunch every day, nor those tasty little cookies in response to a gift for her cat.
Unsure How To Classify
Undead Murder Farce – Kooky and weird are the first labels I have to use with this one. Late 19th / early 20th century era; pretty much all of the “monsters” and other sorts of undead (vampires, etc) are real and some live normal-ish lives among humans. Supernatural killer dude, Tsugaru Shunichi, (who’s part undead) has a job in a carnival fighting and killing rogue ones for an audience. He’s recruited by a … well, a talking head. The head in question belongs to Ayo Rindo. She’s immortal but has been decapitated. This wasn’t enough to kill her. She’d like to either die or be reunited with her body once again. She seems to be (functionally) the head of Sherlock Holmes – albeit missing quite a few other body parts. There definitely is also some fun banter back and forth between our two main leads. It’s interesting and I’m probably here for the whole season. First episode was the hook while the second went into an actual story (working on solving the mystery of a murdered socialite vampire). Interesting and I hope they can sustain it.
The Game of AI – I’ve watched the first episode and am still very much lost about what’s going on here. There seem to be androids (the term used in “old school SF” to mean human-appearing robots, as distinct from plain old ordinary robots who were clearly mechanical) and they are a normal part of society – even to the extent of being allowed to adopt and raise human children. However, backing up or cloning an android brain is forbidden because it seems there are android diseases (“I told you never to click on a link from a random email, damnit!“) which can make them insane or otherwise afflict them? Oh, and there’s also a human doctor who seems legit but is well-known as being willing to do all sorts of shady android stuff (including backing up and restoring androids) for the right price. And now you know about as much as I do even from watching the entire first episode. This is very much a “likely to drop” unless it makes things a hell of a lot more interesting real fast.
Liar, Liar – Ah, yes … the joys of compound misunderstanding leading to the need to continue fostering said misunderstanding in the need to perpetuate the first result. Academy “islands” where everyone can issue game challenges to others (only so long as you’re challenging “uphill”). Doofus newbie gets ridiculous massive “win” against top dog on his first day and then is forced to milk it and declare he’s unbeatable – with the support of some sort of behind-the-scenes shadiness to actually make him unbeatable. Only thing that made this interesting was the goofy “how’re they going to make him win this one?” scheming that occurred. May also drop later.
The Latecomer
Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence – I wound up taking long enough to put this list together that the latecomer actually made it and I had time to watch the first episode. I’m pretty sure it’s going to waver between slice-of-life and rom-com, with an overabundance of “fluffy cuteness” added in. Not really quite sure what to say about it, other than that I enjoyed it? Not a masterpiece by any stretch, but a fun way to spend some time nevertheless.
